Rosie Taylor-Davies Named as a Sewing Hero

Singer Sewing Machines honour her for work during pandemic


Rosie with Great British Sewing Bee judge, Patrick Grant

A costume designer from Putney who created a network of sewists that, between them, have made more than 28,000 items, including sets of scrubs for NHS workers, during the pandemic has been named as one of three UK Sewing Heroes.

Rosie Taylor-Davies was named by Singer Sewing Machines after a nationwide request for nominations and was honoured at a lunch in London with Patrick Grant, a judge on the BBC programme The Great British Sewing Bee.

With her daughter and son in law both working as junior doctors, Rosie became aware before lockdown that there would be a problem with supplies of scrubs, particularly for those who don’t fit the standard single size produced by factories. So, after making a few sets for her daughter and her peers, she stepped back from her company and the PhD for which she was studying, using £1,500 of her own money, bought a supply of fabric and established The Scrubbery, recruiting a team of more than 200 volunteers to make scrubs, scrub hats, isolation gowns, ear protector headbands, face masks and laundry bags, all of which have been sent out to hospitals and healthcare settings in and around London.

Using her skills as a designer and seamstress, Rosie designed her own scrubs pattern, fundraised to buy fabric and has personally cuts each of the pre-cut kits that are given to her team of sewists. Demand soon grew with every London NHS Trust being supplied.

“The Scrubbery has been about more than just providing scrubs,” says Rosie. “Many of the people who have volunteered to sew are people who were shielding, unable to see friends and family and who have been given something productive to do and a reason to connect with other like-minded people. It’s helped all of us to help others.”

But, Rosie continues, the situation hasn’t been resolved.

“Almost all standard scrubs are made abroad and costs as well as transportation times have been steadily increasing. Lead times can now be anywhere up to ten weeks, and I’m determined to push on until we can find a sustainable, domestic solution to the scrubs issue to ensure that it won’t be a problem going forward.”

She has also produced face masks for Age UK, Regenerate Rise, Glass Door homeless charity and for the vulnerable young adults that use Carney's Gyms. She has made aprons for Foodbank and given them our re-worked laundry bags. She has taught university students to sew and has local school children in the hub each week as part of their Duke of Edinburgh award, helping to sort fabric, put together kits, cut elastic for masks... Rosie sends all off-cuts that are too small to be used for masks, hats, or headbands to the Linus project, who make quilts for vulnerable babies and children. As well as continuing to supply scrubs etc, Rosie is now producing 'well-being' bags - drawstring bags that are being individually cut from up-cycled fabric, sewn, then filled with donated treats and goodies, and sent out to frontline NHS staff as a thank you and in the hope of lifting their morale. Rosie has taken off literally no more than a handful of days since she began early last year.

This is now the first award Rosie has received for her work. Earlier this year she was give a Points of Light Award by the Prime Minister. This is given out every week day to an inspirational volunteer who is making a difference in their community.

The other Heroes were Naomi Betts from Amesbury in Wiltshire who, realising that it would soon be made mandatory for people to wear masks in enclosed indoor spaces, decided she needed to do something to keep herself occupied and to contribute to her community’s efforts, began organising hanging mask trees in her garden for people to take. Word spread and at its peak, she had 422 trees registered with many more operating off-map. Naomi estimates that around 200,000 cloth masks have been made with at least 15,000 distributed from her own driveway. The other was Louise Drakes from Keelby, near Grimsby, who has now made over 11,000 lip-reading masks for the hard of hearing, those working in care homes with elderly people, for street teams working with homeless people as well as masks, scrubs, and gowns for those working in the NHS.

Patrick Grant commented, “The stories of these three sewers are inspirational and reflect the enormous contribution that amateur sewers around the country have made to their local NHS and to help their neighbours through successive lockdowns during the pandemic. It’s not an exaggeration for Singer to call Louise, Rosie and Naomi heroes and their local communities as well as the whole sewing community should be very proud of them and all of the other amazing nominees.”

Health workers show off their scrubs supplied by the Scrubbery

Click this link to find out more information about how to help the Scrubbery financially.

November 12, 2021